ORLANDO, FLORIDA -- During my spring break, I visited some of my relatives in Orlando and headed to Universal Studios on Sunday, March 10th, 2013. All seemed to go accordingly during our trip until later in the evening. While we were in line for the Disaster show with my uncle and young cousin, there was a group of middle-aged people drinking beer and other alcoholic beverages in front of us - most were clearly intoxicated. I was wary about the situation but did not think anything of it when suddenly, one of the men who was drinking spat a mouthful of alcohol at my head and face. I was completely shocked, and so were those around me. The man laughed it off, took off his shirt, and offered it to me to clean myself off - though I quickly refused. His half-assed apology could do little about the fact that his spit and alcohol covered my face and hair, ruined my shirt, and splashed on to my 8 year-old cousin as well, right there in the middle of this line.

I got out of line and told one of the staff members immediately and was told to wait for security to arrive while the perpetrator and his friends went into the show. Security took about 15 to 20 minutes to show up and I was asked to write a witness statement. As compensation, I was offered a one-time-use express pass, and both my uncle and cousin received one as well. I also went to a nearby souvenir shop where my cousin and I each received 1 free t-shirt (though the total for both could not exceed $50) to replace our beer-soaked tops. I was also told that the perpetrators were in custody and would be taken to the "office", talked to, and charged with assault and battery.

I felt alright about the situation, albeit upset and shocked, until a short while later when I was in line for another ride, who did I see but those same people. And they were STILL openly drinking in line. I was ultimately lied to as it did not seem as though any charges were pressed nor that they were talked to in any way since they were carrying on with the same behavior that led to the incident. On top of that, I had to face these same people who had put such a damper on my day. To top it off, when I asked whether or not I could have my ticket refunded because all I wanted to do was leave right after the incident, my request was vehemently denied.

I understand that Universal Studios was not responsible for this "accident" but they allowed these adults to openly drink while in line for a "family ride" and following this situation, the perpetrators faced no consequences. They were not even asked to leave. So thanks Universal Studios, thanks for that free t-shirt and the lovely memories but I will not be coming back and neither will my family. My 8 year-old cousin is now scarred by the incident and refuses to go back as well for fear of encountering "mean strangers" again.

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Modified Seats? For whom exactly?

Posted by Cathyann on 06/08/2012

Rating: 1/51

ORLANDO FLORIDA, COLORADO -- This review is for any big girls or guys out there wanting to ride Harry Potter in Universal Studios Islands of Adventure in Orlando. I consider myself a big girl 5'6" tall 274lbs. Last year I rode Harry Potter and totally loved it. I did however had to ride the "modified" seat. You pull the harness down and click it into place. No problem. Well a few days ago, (a year after the first ride) I'm still 5'6, but lost a little weight 266lbs. I stood in line for 90 minutes with my husband.

When it was our turn, I asked the attendant for a "modified seat". I sat down and brought the harness down to click it once. She informed me that I had to click it in toward me two more times. I tried to but there isn't any room for my right arm to get far up enough to get a descent grip. I asked her if she could help, and she said "she isn't allowed to" I fussed with it a little longer, then he said "I'm sorry, but you'll won't be able to ride today" and popped off the harness. My husband was already clicked in or he would have pushed it in for me before he did his own. I tried again, to no avail. I got off the platform with tears in my eyes. I had carpal tunnel surgery twice this year and needed some help, my grip still isn't 100%. Any other ride I went on at other parks they check every single harness for you. Help you click it in if needed. I never felt so appalled in all my life.
I read on the modified seats sign that it is for "upper body". I swam in that dang seat just needed help pushing the harness down. Who is this seat made for? I'm informing all my friends and family about this. I don't recommend going to Universal if you are more than a size 18. Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

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Ripped Off

Posted by April on 05/29/2012

Rating: 1/51

ORLANDO, LOUISIANA -- I purchased a vacation package and went to the theme parks in early March of 2012. I also purchased five tickets for breakfast at The Three Broomsticks Restaurant. On the scheduled day of the breakfast, there was literally a torrential downpour going on. It made no sense to go into the theme parks just for the breakfast and waste an entire theme park pass, when it was scheduled to rain the whole day. I called the vacation packages line early and informed them that we would not be attending due to the weather, and also asked if I could reschedule for the next morning. They informed me that there was no availability for the next two days. I then asked if we could use the voucher towards dinner at that same restaurant and was told that they could neither do that nor could they give me vouchers to eat at any other restaurant or spend in the theme park. I was told to go to the guest services window in the park, turn in the vouchers and wait six entire weeks for a refund.

I did this and on 4/23/2012 I called back to inquire about my refund which I still had not received. Of course, I was told to hold forever while they researched this. The agent, Celeste, that I spoke with then came back on the line and stated "sorry", for some reason they had not even started processing the refund. But, she did see that the vouchers for five breakfasts was turned in to guest services. She then stated that she was submitting it for processing and it should take a few more weeks. She also offered me five All Day Dining Meals for the inconvenience.

I called on 5/28 to see about the refund that I still have yet to receive and also about redeeming the All Day Dining meals. I was then told that there was no record of my visit, at which time I supplied them with my original reservation number and offered to email the original reservation. I also gave a comment number that I was told by Celeste to use on future inquiries. At that point, I was basically told that they had no idea what happened to my refund and to contact the revenue dept.. As for those promised meal deals, well they must have just been a figment of my imagination. They also had no record of that. I asked to speak directly with Celeste and was first told she was on another call and then that she was off altogether.

I asked for a manager and spoke with someone named Jimmy, who claimed to be a manager but was by far the rudest person I have ever spoken within a customer service dept.. He basically yelled at me and implied that I was a liar because Celeste would never promise those things. When I asked who I might speak with to file a formal complaint he told me that he was it, there was no one above him and that even if I submitted a complaint online it would be forwarded to him. Which is why I am now taking every available forum to vent my frustration, including the consumer affairs website.

This vacation package was a nightmare from the beginning. What should have been a relaxing vacation for my son who just returned from bootcamp, turned out to be miserable. From the bed at the Portofino Bay hotel that was made up beautifully, but when my daughter got in it the first night of our arrival turned out to be very wet with some unknown fluid, to the horrible treatment I encountered for over a simple refund. I spent over 3,000 dollars with Universal and I can"t believe that a company would allow its employees to treat a customer so badly over a situation like this. At this point, it is no longer about the money, but about principle. I feel like I was being riped off from the start which is why the refund could not be processed while I was actually at the resort.

It now seems like a concerted effort in hopes that customers will just go home and forget about the fact that they just lost some money through no fault of their own. Therefore, I am now telling all of my friends, family coworkers and the Facebook community about my awful experience and that they should steer clear of a Universal Vacation Package unless thay want to be ripped off.

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Universal Studio's Staff Needs Training In Manners And Cater A Little To The Disabled

Posted by Smokey13 on 04/17/2009

ORLANDO, FLORIDA -- We have been Premier Pass holders for 2 years and our Daughter and family came to visit and we went to all the parks in Orlando but Universal. So I told my husband who is disabled that the day they leave we will go to Universal for a few hours and head home, please keep in mind we have been to every park already in Orlando with no problems and they give the disabled a handicap fast pass to all attractions. Well be go to Universal and we park a long way a way because of not enough handicap parking, we get up to the check point and we have a cooler that has a hard plastic container in it where one side we can put his medicine that have to be kept cool and four drinks, this sits down inside his walker seat and the lid has to be cracked open about 2 maybe 3 inches because of the height, well the one security guard said we have to leave the cooler or go put it in the car we tried explaining to them the situation and another guard comes up and says" What's your problem".

Well that set us both off right there and we asked to speak to a supervisor and the supervisor goes gets a small cooler they sell that would not even fit my husband's medicines in one and he says you can take as many of these as you want or can in to the park, my husband spoke up and said I cannot let my medicines get wet and he says "That is not my problem" then I said those leak we have try bigger ones already and they leak and again "That is not my problem" so we go to put the cooler back into the car and we were going to leave when I decided to call the number on the back of my card and who ever answered the phone, said the best thing you can do is while you are currently at the park is to come speak with a supervisor.

So we put the cooler in the car and headed back in we get to that same line and a Sargent comes up and says they cannot go into the park with that cooler and he point to the seat on my husbands walker, my husband got so mad and turned to that boy and said "Son, who best go mind your F______ business and leave me the F______ alone and then two others went to get smart and my husband shut them right up, he was so mad I have never seen him like this. We get to guest services and a supervisor comes out and we said we want to get our money back on our passes since the last time we were here and she said we can not do that and wanted to know the story, so we told her everything above and she said that are our rules, and that they do not have the line for handicap anymore that they have to purchase the fast pass like everyone else and that they are the only ones around that is ADA compliant, well this ADA compliant, I sure hope the rest of the parks don't go that way because they bend over backwards for the handicap, needless to stay they said they only thing they can do is give us a free day of fast pass and cancel our membership.

For all that is handicap, beware of Universal Studios, but yet a mother with a child can take a big bag, a big cooler and back backs are being taken in and we watched so many much bigger bags being taken in.

I am going to fight this to the US Supreme Court, if I have too, there was no need of the embarrassment, hassle and humiliation that they put us through and wasted 3 hours of our time.

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NOT Wheelchair Friendly

Posted by Joe on 12/28/2012

Rating: 1/51

ORLANDO, FLORIDA -- After 3 days at Disney World we were very disappointed by the way our 5 year old child with special needs in a wheelchair was treated today.

Upon arrival we immediately asked what WE needed to do to insure our child Ruby Jo was able to enjoy your park. The first thing we were told was 'We are ADA compliant but we don't do anything 'special' for wheelchairs." We asked if we needed any special pass, tags or access card for the wheelchair. We were told over and over that the park was 'ADA' and they don't do anything 'special' except if the wait is over 30 minutes then they may let us use an express lane. We were also told to just enter the park and we would basically have to figure it out.

Every attraction we attempted, we were told we needed some sort of special pass which we had previously asked for and never received. Each attendant seemed annoyed and frustrated saying that today was 'very busy and many features such as express lanes and check ins were not being utilized'. We kept trying over and over and every time the same story. It was very difficult to even distinguish who was an employee and who wasn't as there were no discernible uniforms. After a few hours of this nonsense I went to guest relations and asked to speak to a manager. I was told there were NO managers available. I calmly explained that I was not leaving until I spoke with someone. The guest relations team basically ignored me. I waited patiently until I saw a 'manager'. I flagged him down and explained that a child in a wheelchair was mistreated, he started to listen. After I told him the entire story he offered to refund the price of our tickets. I am writing to you because I want to do anything I can to make sure this NEVER EVER happens to another family with someone with special needs. I implore you as a company to seriously reevaluate your treatment of guest with special needs. Your staff should never tell a guest with special needs that they don't do anything 'special' for them.

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Very Disappointed

Posted by KBuck on 01/13/2011

We went to Universal on 12/28/2010. We purchased our tickets, at which time the ticket agent told us the park was very full, we understood that we would need to wait in long lines but we were glad to be there, so we purchased our ticket.

We went into the park with the intention of going to see the Harry Potter world. I had seen it before, so I know that it was only three rides so we figured we would simply see how long the lines were and if nothing else just enjoy the Hogsmeade area and purchase some gifts.

What shocked us was that they had closed off the Harry Potter area, as if it were a separate park. No one informed us of this when we purchased our tickets, no one told us that we would need to be designated a time that we could enter that portion of the park, we were simply sold our (very overpriced) tickets and told to enter the park.

We spent a total of 45 minutes in the park and left without seeing a single thing that we wanted to. The cost of the adventure for two people $175.00. When we complained to customer service, the woman told me, "hmmm...I didn't know they had the Harry Potter section closed off, you should just come back later...but I am sure it will just be busy then too."

Where did customer service go? If you are going to close a portion of the park off, you should tell people BEFORE you have them purchase a ticket. From what I can see here, I am not the only one who experienced this bait and switch move by Universal, so needless to say, they made a lot of money and didn't offer much of anything to their customers.

The interesting part is that I love Harry Potter and the stories, so I tolerated the fact that Universal boasts they have a Harry Potter world. I tried to simply take in everything while I was there on my first visit (prior to the Christmas visit) but in reality the park created a very small Hogsmeade section with only a few places that are actual buildings that you can go into, created an interesting castle, but then simply re-purposed two rides that were already a part of the park to begin with. With such little effort into this section on Universal's part, you would think that they would be thankful that people want to go there, want to be part of it, when really there is not much to see.

I still love the area, although small, simply because I try to see the magic in bringing a story to life, but Universal should be ashamed by their performance not only in creating a World that is more of a small neighborhood and by the way their extorted money out of unsuspecting visitors during the Christmas week.

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Universal Studios - Broken Rides and Not Able to Get Into Harry Potter

Posted by Rajiv on 01/11/2011

ORLANDO, FLORIDA -- We went to Universal Studios the week on 12/27 for our family vacation. We experienced several problems and weren't able to enjoy the park. When we complained to guest services, we were offered a one-day return pass after 4pm OR $5 credit per person. We were extremely disappointed. Here are the problems that we experienced:

1. The Harry Potter area was closed on the 29th and 30th. We were unable to enter this attraction at 2pm on the 29th and also on the 30th. We were told to go to Toon Lagoon and wait in line for a later entry time ticket. We went to Toon Lagoon and had a difficult time finding the line for the re-entry tickets (the employees there did not know where the line is for re-entry into Harry Potter and the lines are not well labeled). Once we found the line at around 3pm, the re-entry tickets for a 9pm return time were sold out and we were told to wait in a 180 minute line to enter the attraction. That was our only option which is not an acceptable one. It's not easy waiting in a line for 3 hours with an 11 year old!
2. The Revenge of the Mummy ride was down on 12/29 from 4:45 to 5:45 (or longer). We were in line and heard an audio message to wait for further information. After 45 minutes in line, we were told that the ride would be closed. We spoke with Mary and Bob at the ride and asked for compensation. They offered us express passes, which were of no used to us since we were staying at Portofino and already had paid for Express entry. Mary and Bob told us to speak with Guest Services. We spoke with Alejander and were not satisfied with her response (a return pass after 4pm or $5 voucher per person).
3. The Jimmy Neutron ride was broken at noon on 12/30. We were told to return at a later time. We returned at 1:00 and the ride was still down.

Universal needs to limit the capacity into the park. They also need to notify guests that they may not be able to enter certain exhibits due to capacity and technical issues. We were not able to get a refund and wanted this information to be available to others who may visit the park during peak times.

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Universal Studios Orlando,its Not Worth the Money

Posted by Eddie on 07/22/2013

Rating: 1/51

ORLANDO, FLORIDA -- When we got there July 20th at 10am, there was full crowd headed in and we expected that, but the time we spent in the lines for Despicable Me and Rock it were a joke. Not to mention twice we were in line for Transformers and the man came over the PA and said the ride would be down for up to 45 minutes! This is all during the time the WAIT sign said up to 140 minutes!!! What the hell,, Even Disney has max times of an hour, oh and that don't charge you for FAST PASS like they do at Universal.. And one other side note,, my daughter and I questioned when the EXPRESS Pass line was moving so fast versus us,, the Park Attendant says" we use a ratio of 60 Fast pass riders and then 40 regular park riders, so basically they want your money and then stick it to you if you don't give them more... Won't be back unless someone gives me FREE TICKETS and going to let everyone I know, on the AIR and NEWS, Facebook know about this BS.. As a Florida Resident I am appalled about how crappy Universal treats is guests forgiven or domestic!

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Best Park Ever

Posted by Sandy736 on 09/13/2012

Rating: 5/51

ORLANDO, FLORIDA -- I love this place and some people complain over it being busy but it's because everyone wants to be in the best park on earth! I bought a ticket and the operator helped me save a ton of money by offering me the best ticket for both parks universal and islands of adventure, and the express ticket to save time waiting in the regular lines. I also purchased a meal deal band so I could eat all day saving me a lot of money. I thought they was so nice and pleasant, it's always nice to see smiling faces and helpful people. I had a amazing time and loves all the rides, it's a happy place and everyone who works there are so amazing. You will love the place and have a wonderful time. I would recommend going to anyone.

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Left feeling ripped off at Universal Studios

Posted by any1588 on 01/10/2011

ORLANDO, FLORIDA -- My family and I had an experience at Universal Studio that has left us feeling disappointed and very. We entered the park around 11 am at the cost of $566.88 (6 Adult tickets plus parking of $30.) on December 22, 2010. Two hours passed (because of pushing and bumping through crowds and poor signage) beore we were able to experience anything the park had to offer â and that was lunch at an additional cost of $40. We had to wait until 3 PM to enter Harry Potter Theme Park only to queue up for a line a mile long for the Forbidden Journey.

There was no crowd control and no employees within sight to give direction. It was dangerously overcrowded. If one person panicked we would have been trampled to death. Families were forming chains, holding onto each other so as not to be separated. This was a very dangerous situation. After the ride we found ourselves again fighting our way out of the gift shop. My husband and I are seniors and we were so uncomfortable with the crowds that we had to escape Harry Potter Theme Park to Dr. Seuss land. We rested a few minutes then left the park at 4:30 PM. Our daughter and her family queued up for another line (40 minute wait) to purchase a wand for her two children - another $60 for two wands.
Almost $700 for us to enjoy 2-3 minutes on a ride compared to hours of frustrating, dangerous overcrowding for over a hundred dollars a person is a complete rip off.